African American Nurses have long history with the American Red Cross

African American Nurses at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio (1918)

When the United States formally entered the First World War in l9l7, Red Cross nurses were enrolled through the Army Nurse Corps. About 1,800 African American nurses were certified by the American Red Cross for duty with the military, but the Red Cross had no control over their assignments. The first group of African American Red Cross nurses was accepted in l9l8. These nurses did not have the chance to serve overseas. Opportunities for service were greatly expanded when the influenza epidemic began sweeping the United States in September l9l8. The surgeon general of the U.S. Public Health Service called upon the Red Cross, and 15,000 nurses, dieticians, and others were recruited and sent to work in military camps, hospitals, coal fields, munitions plants, and shipyards. By the time the pandemic had subsided in the spring of l9l9, more than 540,000 people had died.

Frances Elliott Davis (1877-1965)

In l9l5, Frances Elliott Davis, a professional nurse at Freedman's Hospital in Washington, D.C., applied for American Red Cross service. Undeterred by initial rejection, Davis persisted and in l9l7 became the first African American Red Cross nurse officially approved by the organization. Her nurse's pin was inscribed with "1-A" on the reverse. The "A" designated the wearer as an African American, and this practice continued until 1949. Davis was assigned to the Town and Country Nursing Service, which had been established in 1912 as the American Red Cross Rural Nursing Service.